Als ik dit zo zie...
Review:
So with that in mind a few months back we were all talking about mixers for the budget Dj, and as until 05-06, the BUTTONFEST that is the Behringer DDM4000 wasn't released yet. I was teatering between the American Audio MX1400 DSP and this one. I'm certainly glad I did, and so far, pure dopeness for $385.00 (I hacked with the Guitar Center rep and got him to knock 15.00 off) also adding another $28 smackers for Midi to USB cable
. (yesssir....midi!) I'm about 3 weeks into this mixer and beginning to figure pretty much all its highs and lows.
So I hafta say I was both giddy and leary when the GC rep broke out the gayest colored box ever that didn't really scream digital and PRO but I was determined to try this thing out. But once opened, I was suprised, the standard manual and sticker and power cord but sweet....rails! And what is that? A copy of Traxtor 3 demo included, yes this mixer is Traxtor certified. This doesn't mean too much to me as I use Torq and Virtual Dj for my Dj needs but nice of em to throw it in for you.
Upon unboxing I notice the mixer is not too large and not very heavy on the lower half portion but more to the top. The build feels tough but I wouldn't say it feels tank tough. But I'm an advocate for take care of your gear and it will take care of you and time will tell.
The knobs are of very acceptable quality, some even have a push in feature that you can click (not stay in but click like your enter). And
all the buttons have this feel to them. Which in my honest opinion is genius. I'm not sure of alot of mixers out there that also do this, but I hate the push a button in and depress out buttons on mixers. It's just akward to me and for some reason they seem to fail or leaves more of a margin of error. Every button on this mixer are thick and have almost the same click feel as on the cue and sample buttons on your SLDZ-1200. Okay that said there is still a little wiggle to them in their respected holes on the chassis but still very well built. Also most of the buttons light in 2 colors blue and orange to distinguish modes and the mixer lights are extremely bright, almost too bright around the line selection and mode select toward the top of the mixer.
The line faders feel okay but the crossfader is actually pretty decent. The line faders all feel okay with a nice smooth glide, that actually has a nice small resistance against the chassis, (might lead to paint wear later on) the fader caps feel a little cheap tho. The mixer has your standard channel select nearby to the right of each and offer curve options even on the line faders...nice. The crossfader is actually alot better than I thought it to be and has some snazzy options to them and within very easy, layed out reach. Features include a CF on/off, frequency kills with full freq button, hamster button, (not switch, button) and a button to bounce to midi clock for us beat machine junkies
, and curve knob. And if your a scratch Dj and really finnicky about your crossfader, it's replaceable. You can throw in a ifinium so I hear.
At first glance,
Jeezus look at all these damn buttons! but the layout is actually very well thought out and with midi superb, more on that later. My only quip on the layout is the headphone placement. I would think my headphone cord especially my thick curly corded RP-DH's would drag across the mixer wreaking havok. But tucked neatly to the side of the mixer its a non issue. I still would've placed it in the lower right corner over the behringer bullseye.
Oh BTW, All the lines come with adjustable preamps between line and phono, so I gotta gang of ish hooked up and at my disposal, currently hooked up, KP2, SLDZ's, SL1200 MK2, Macbook Pro, MPC-500, Dell Deminsion, and even a iPhone, with still a couple more available channels left. And of course midi! One con, is there is no effects loop, which is not playing very well with my KP2 and although I can use about 70% of the effects on the KP2 I can't use all until I figure the exact right calibration between the mixer and KP2 with no feedback. Bummer, cuz I was thinking about a KP3 but I dunno now.
Now the features, the middle display is nice and bright and theres a setting to adjust the contrast. It's somewhat cluttered with every bit of info you can think of but you get used to it. The middle knob acts as a selector and also presses in to navigate thru the menus on the display, which, there are alot of menus...but with alot of menus comes alot of options...mic setup, talk setup, channel setup, fx setup, crossfader, ultramize, output setup, user settings, midi settings, and sampler and effects info. Navigation is less painful than it looks, using the knob to scroll and push in to select and the button below to back/escape.
Next to the selector you got your FX section. All the FX are fully customizable and also can be assigned to any individual line or even chained with multiple FX. The onboard FX include your typical, flanger, phaser, delay, echo, pitch, bitcrusher, reverb, pan, and filter. Each FX bank has EQ kills, beat synch, dry/wet, and a slew of customizable options, you can even adjust frequencies and come up with your own. Oh, the sounds I'm making when daisychained to the KP2 in 24bit pure digital goodness...makes me feel
...
....
!
Speaking of 24bit, the sound quality is actually one of this mixers brightest points. All digital, no hum, no soft faint power sound, you can't tell its even on and BAM, loud undistorted sound. This mixer is behringers first all digital mixer sporting 2 processors and spdif digital out. Eww, thats just nasty. And for myself, I do alot of recording and producing and don't hear any gremlins or artifacts with recording.
To the lower left you got your sampler. A 32 sec., 2 bank sampler is included. There is also an excellent feature set that comes with the sampler. You can record from any line or master, assign to bank, loop or single shot, beatmatch and sync, insert, play in reverse, assign the sample to the crossfader and fader start (Yeah!), and you can even push a button and the sample will brake like your twelve-hunnid.
Wanna know what else your dispicable, measly little cheap ass gets for $385?
A mixer with MIDI in, out, and thru. The way I currently have mine set up, is with a midi to usb cord plugged to the back and to ye old mac daddy I now have my mic section knobs and and 4th channel knobs and buttons assigned in Torq to control effects and VST's and most of the knobs and buttons with exception of the main and FX buttons are assignable, even the line faders and crossfaders. Its kinda nice to break almost completely free of the mouse and keyboard. Another set up is using just regular midi cables to the MPC-500. When this is hooked up, I can midi clock and synchronize and beatmatch my own blood curdling sounds with the mixers internal midi clock and your music thru any of the lines...with added FX! Now da ish gets interesting! Think of the possibilities with Live, and Reason and your other production software!
Now this is just my opinion, and like I said it's only been about 3 weeks, and after all this is Behringer we're talking here, (
note: Actually, I have an 3yr old DJX700 that besides a fader replacement hasn't had a single problem, its a backup tho ) but I highly recommend this mixer from the average Dj to the advanced Dj/Tweaker and
at this price your not going to find a well rounded, extremely feature rich, decent build, excellent sounding digital mixer than the DDM-4000, period. Even you snotty little Paris Hilton rich money burning Dj's can afford to splurge a little scratch and keep one of these as a backup, or you might even be pleasantly surprised.
Just thought I'd share with yall. Peace,
-Terrill Marshall aka Checkmate